'CyberKnife' Neuroscience (SNI) posts

The Swedish Radiosurgery Center was a featured stop for the nursing students from Kobe City College of Nursing during their recent visit to Seattle. The students toured the center where they learned about our CyberKnife and Gamma Knife programs.

“I was very impressed that the patient care is personalized to respect the needs of every individual. I have a lot of respect for staff who sincerely work with patients regardless of their background and circumstances. We learned the importance of having confidence in our field as medical professionals and the great privilege of serving ones in need.”

- Keiko Kikuchi, RN, PHN, Assistant Professor, Kobe City College of Nursing.

The group learned ...

If you have never heard the term radiosurgery, you are in good company. This sci-fi sounding word may conjure images from Star Trek but radiosurgery is anything but fiction.

Radiosurgery uses multiple beams of radiation from a variety of directions to destroy diseased or damaged tissue. Although the name sounds like a surgical procedure, this is a non-invasive way to treat many different conditions. The CyberKnife and Gamma Knife technologies are very precise and avoid injury to surrounding, normal tissue and the course of treatment lasts from a single session to less than 2 weeks...

There was cause for celebration in the Swedish Radiosurgery Center on Thursday, Dec. 16, as neurosurgeon Ronald Young, M.D. (left), medical director of the Gamma Knife^® program, and radiation oncologist Bob Meier, M.D. (below), medical director of the CyberKnife program, treated the center’s first two Gamma Knifepatients. The center, formerly known as the Seattle CyberKnife Center, supports both the Swedish Cancer Institute and the Swedish Neuroscience Institute.

The center has offered CyberKnife services since 2006. This year Swedish installed an Elekta Leksell Perfexion Gamma Knife^®, making it one of the most advanced stereotactic radiosurgery centers in the country. CyberKnife can be used to treat cancerous and noncancerous tumors in all areas of the body.

At Swedish, Gamma Knife will be used to treat cancer of the brain and some neurological conditions, such as essential tremor, trigeminal neuralgia and arteriovenous malformations. Providing Swedish neurosurgeons and radiation oncologists access to both of these advanced technologies gives them greater flexibility in selecting the best radiation therapy for their patients. For more information, go to www.swedish.org/radiosurgery or call 206-320-7130.